Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS) was founded by Prof. Achyuta Samanta in 1992-93 with only 125 poor tribal students. At present, the number of students educated through KISS has touched more than 30,000, out of which nearly seven thousand have gone in for higher education at KISS. This institution has been accorded the Deemed University status by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD), Govt. of India on 25/08/2017. KISS has become the first University in the entire world exclusively for tribal students. The University has introduced seven new innovative areas in the first phase with the approval of UGC to provide impetus to research in tribal legal studies and tribal rights, tribal resource management, tribal culture and heritage, tribal languages, tribal medicine and tribal technology, Indic studies etc. Students get residential education free of cost.